“Smaller groups of Catholics outside the metropolitan area rely on the services of priests and sisters who staff their mission stations and parishes. Creating a concrete presence of our Church in these mission areas is a responsibility shared by all of us. The Charities Drive will personally assist those priests, sisters and laity who make that presence real. From the mountains of Toccoa, to as far south as Washington, Ga., the work of the Church is able to move forward with your help.”

That statement comes from the 1976 Charities Drive brochure ; part of the informational material promoting awareness of the Church in North Georgia.

Commenting on these mission areas, Father Jerry E. Hardy, archdiocesan chancellor, said: “The mission areas of non-metropolitan North Georgia ought to be a reminder to all of us that at one time or another most of us were in places where the Church’s presence was small, its numbers were small and its identity was small by all those standards. It was, nevertheless, ‘home’ to us and we knew it helped us to live better lives in the larger community.

“The same thing is happening in a dozen or so places over the northern half of the state where priests, sisters and laity are working to be the Church and to bring its richness to the areas where they live. The drive helps continue that work by funding salaries and by program support.”

Apart from salaries and programming, the archdiocese spent approximately $200,000 last year in capital investment for future parish sites. This was separate from, and in addition to, the drive-related funding mentioned above.

The Archdiocesan Charities Drive on March 7 aims for a goal of $300,000. “The expansion in the metro area is what always catches peoples’ attention, but the kind of development and expansion we need to be doing in the non-metro areas in equal to it on all sides. We rely on this drive to help us meet that challenge,” Father Hardy said.